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Dolores Grey
Overview Dolores Grey Is Temple Studio’s current diva. She's vain but past her prime. Despite her relatively youthful appearance, Dolores was, according to the Doctor's files, born in 1880, and so is over 80 years old by the events of the show. She has an affair with Marshall and seems to be forced into a role she does not want. Alice Estee takes particular delight in humiliating her, and her own assistant treats her with ill-disguised contempt. The one good thing that happens to her is meeting Marshall, but even that is part of a wider plan to denigrate Wendy. Dolores’ story is one of decline and humiliation. As the star of the studio she was used to getting the best parts, but those days have gone. Mr Stanford explains over the phone to another executive that Dolores’ career is over, she’s too old and she’s a ‘Grandmother’. Appearance Wears a red sequinned dress most of the time, sometimes slipping into a negligee and robe, but is occasionally dressed in costume with full head mask. Loop - Basic * Does hair in front of mirrors (Ornate Bedroom) * Spinning box dance with Claude (Dressing Room) * Signs autograph for Frankie (Finale Stage) * Flirtatious dance with Frankie and Marshall (Woodchip Caravan Park) * Listens to story from Frankie en route to... (Birthday Tent) * Flirts with Marshall at birthday (Birthday Tent) * Directed to snow room by Alice (Finale Stage) * Snow dance with Marshall as Assistant watches (Studio 4 - Snow Room) * Gives Marshall watch (Studio 4 - Snow Room) * Gets changed into black gown (Ornate Bedroom) * Dances and sleeps with Marshall (Ornate Bedroom) * Assistant interrupts the affair (Ornate Bedroom) * Gets changed into suit and mask (Studio 4 - Snow Room) * Frankie's Initiation (Masonic Temple) * Given grandma role by Mr. Stanford (Masonic Temple) * Changes into red dress (Ornate Bedroom) * Subjected to Doctor's torch (Corridors) * Gets injected by Doctor (Medical Room) * Dances alone (Studio 4 - Snow Room) * Attends orgy (Masonic Temple) * Given Granny costume by Alice (Masonic Temple Ante Room) * Doctor shines a torch at her (Masonic Temple) * Dies at feet of Assistant (Ornate Bedroom) * Changes out of grandma costume (Ornate Bedroom) Loop - Extended At the start of her loop, Dolores is lying on a mound of snow in the corner of her bedroom. The room is full of opulent antique furniture and ornate mirrors. There are piles of presents from adoring fans. A silver-backed hairbrush holds down a begging letter that reads, ‘It would mean the world to us if you would endorse our cold cream’. Dolores gets up, groggy and confused. The Assistant is there and she helps Dolores change out of her costume and gives her a drink. She rattles a bottle of pills and pours one onto her open palm. Rather than take it from her, Dolores leans down and scoffs it straight from her hand like a dog. The Assistant opens up a diary and they discuss the events for the day ahead. She hands Dolores a page of script that includes a couple of Norma Desmond quotes. Dolores stands at the dressing table surrounded by mirrors and looks out at the audience. Theatrically, she reads the lines – ‘Scene 7. Fade in. Ice Palace. Dolores: I can’t go on with this scene. I’m too happy. You see this is my life. It always will be. There’s nothing else. Just us, and those wonderful people out there in the dark! Alright, I’m ready for my close up.’ She brushes her hair, discards the page on the desk and the two of them leave the room. She moves to the Main Dressing Room where she dances with a studio executive, Claude Estee, in a wardrobe rack on wheels. He exits the crate so that he can control it with Dolores trapped inside. He spins it till she’s dizzy and begging him to stop. She collapses, drained and frightened. She moves outside, to Studio 2 and the Finale Stage. She sees Marshall and Frankie fooling around by the trailers. She signs an autograph for Frankie and shares a flirtatious dance with Marshall. Frankie says that he’s got a surprise for her and they laugh as they walk together to the Mess Tent for her birthday party. Once inside, Dolores flirts shamelessly with Marshall. She mocks Wendy with the others and gets a face full of champagne as a result. After the party, Alice Estee directs Dolores to Studio 4, the ‘Frozen Lake’ set. She meets Marshall and they share an exhilarating dance up and down the snow mounds. The Assistant watches from a distance, waiting for them to finish. After their dance, the two lovers crash out, exhausted. The Assistant is standing with an audience member. She smiles and takes a silver box from him. She opens the box and offers it to Dolores, who takes out a shiny watch. Marshall is reclining in a director’s chair and Dolores leans over to kiss him. At the same time, she takes the watch and wraps it around his wrist. She whispers a word of thanks from Mr Stanford. Later, the watch is spotted by Wendy as evidence of the affair. Dolores gets changed into a black gown in her bedroom. Marshall arrives and they share another passionate dance. They move from a chaise longue to a large elaborate four-poster-bed. Their frolicking is interrupted by The Assistant and Dolores lashes out. The Assistant is unmoved and tells Dolores that she needs to get ready. Dolores screams ‘No, no, no’ and hurls herself backwards against the headboard. Eventually she relents, and slips into a black tuxedo, a white shirt and a skinhead mask. She’s ready for ‘Frankie’s Initiation’ and she walks downstairs to the Basement. She joins Mr Stanford, Claude and Alice Estee for Frankie’s cruel and unusual inauguration. Mr Stanford, the black-suited puppet master, presides over his three henchmen as they pummel Frankie to the ground. The young actor passes his brutal test and enters the world of Hollywood. Afterwards, Dolores approaches Mr Stanford. She’s disgusted about her latest acting role, the ‘Grandmother’. Mr Stanford shakes his head and mutters, oblivious to her wails of anguish and shame. She storms out and heads upstairs to her bedroom where she changes back into her red dress. She visits The Doctor in his surgery and strikes a pose on the examination platform. She falters and clutches for something to keep her upright. The Doctor administers an injection in her neck and she collapses to the floor. She writhes about inside one of the examination booths until her whole body is sandwiched into the top third of the compartment. She stays there a while before gradually sliding to the ground. A call comes through the speakers - Mr Stanford wants Dolores ready in two minutes. She laughs and says, ‘Tell him I’ll be there in seven.’ She’s called to Studio 4, the ‘Frozen Lake’ set to shoot ‘Scene 7’. When she gets to the room she appears to be on her own. Her dance turns into a breakdown. She performs a lip-synched solo to an unseen camera. A voice that only she can hear tells her to keep performing. She repeats the scene again and again, sliding down the snow slopes and scrambling back up until she’s spinning in circles. After the scene she continues to ramble, ‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t do it, I was too happy. This is my life, this is all there is.’ She returns to the Basement for Mr Stanford’s party. In a corridor, she bumps into The Fool. She asks mockingly, ‘Not invited?’ He replies, ‘Maybe next time?’ They look at each other and repeat ‘Maybe next time!’ and laugh hysterically. Dolores joins the others in the hall for the big blowout, where she seduces and straddles Marshall. The soiree ends in a traumatic druggy mess and the guests disperse from the battlefield in several directions. She walks to the hall next door where Alice is standing next to a mannequin. Nearby, two effigies lie face down on the checkerboard floor. The mannequin is dressed in the ‘Grandmother’ costume and Alice slowly removes each item of clothing to give Dolores. As Dolores changes into a fur coat and mask, the spirit of the role takes over her. She wheezes and clutches her throat. Her shoulders crumple and she has difficulty walking. She ages decades in a few moments, like Mr Cooger in ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ – ‘The man was small inside his clothes, small as a child, but tall, strung out, and old, so old, very old, not ninety, not one hundred, no, not one hundred ten, but one hundred twenty or one hundred thirty impossible years old.’ Alice gives her a walking stick and Dolores hobbles off to her bedroom. Her once beautiful face is now a wrinkled mask. This is her worst nightmare come true - the star of the studio relegated to the scrap heap. Her face is a silent scream for help. The grandmother mask could be described as ‘grotesque’ in the true theatrical sense. Such items are strange, ugly, incongruous and disgusting. Grotesque objects may be weird and distorted forms that simultaneously invoke in an audience a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as empathic pity. The French writer Rémi Astruc argues that although there are many motifs and figures that could be defined as grotesque, the three main tropes of the grotesque are doubleness, hybridity and metamorphosis. The Assistant is already in the bedroom waiting for Dolores. She approaches her boss and the audience expects her to offer some solace, to soothe and comfort, but instead she holds up a hand mirror and forces Dolores to see just how far she’s fallen. Dolores recoils and twists away to escape the image, but The Assistant pursues her across the room, driving her back with her own reflection, not letting her escape the sight for a second. Dolores collapses by the dressing table, hysterical. She starts to choke in the mask and she claws at her throat. She crawls to a snow heap in the corner of the room and falls still. The Assistant lowers the mirror and stands over her body. There’s no emotion on her face, no pleasure or sadness, just acceptance that she’s done what was required. Dolores’ time is over. ‘Avarice’, from the ‘Hannibal’ soundtrack, plays as Dolores lies on the ground and rain falls from the sky outside the arched windows behind her. Eventually, The Assistant removes the mask from her. She gently cradles her head and the music fades. Dolores opens her eyes, as if waking from a deep sleep. The Assistant helps her into a chair, smoothes away her hair, gently massages her temples and gives her a pill from the supply on her desk. Dolores swills it down with a slug of liquor, shakes her head and comes to her senses. The Assistant tidies her make-up and helps her into a ball gown before sending her off to her birthday celebration, as good as new. Final Show Influences from other media The character of Dolores is partly based on ‘Norma Desmond’ from ‘Sunset Boulevard’, a 1950 American film noir directed by Billy Wilder. The opening shot of the film is of a drowned man in a swimming pool. Norma is a faded movie star who dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Dolores’ recites some of Norma’s lines - ‘It’s just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!’ As her star fades she becomes more aware of the masked audience around her and is troubled by them. The name Dolores Grey is also reminiscent of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel ‘Lolita’, published in 1955. Lolita’s real name is Dolores, and the character was allegedly based on an actress called Lita Grey. In Steve Martin’s collection of short stories, ‘Pure Drivel’, he imagines Dolores as a fifty year old, who has settled in LA and has an extravagant boudoir, ‘which rivalled a house of mirrors’. Trivia The story of ‘The Drowned Man’ takes place on 30th October 1962, which is Dolores’ birthday. The file on Dolores in the Drafting Room claims that she was born on November 17th 1880. Her age is noted as twenty-five in The Doctor's files, but she’s actually eighty-two. She’s been able to stay youthful by selling her soul in return for a period of immortality, as part of a Faustian pact with Mr Stanford. Some reviewers believe that her elevation to ‘Grandmother’ marks the end of the contract. Her period of youthful living is over and when she’s given the old woman’s costume, her true age catches up with her. According to a folder in The Assistant's office, she dies on November 1st 1962. The Doctor’s file on Dolores lists her closest relative as Alice Estee. A poster in the town square advertises ‘THE TUNNEL OF LOVE’ starring Dolores Grey, (a film with the same name from 1958 starred Doris Day). Quotes References Image credit: http://siue2013.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/punchdrunk1_2620426b.jpg?w=620Category:Characters